Invitation to the First US and UK SME Dialogue

(March 2018, Washington DC) STRAP was invited to attend an inaugural U.S.-UK Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Dialogue under the auspices of the U.S.- UK Trade and Investment Working Group, in Washington DC.  The SME Dialogue was convened by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Small Business Administration with the UK Department for International Trade, UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the British Embassy in Washington D.C.  The SME Dialogue was the first of its kind after Brexit and UK serving as the door to Europe is not realistic for businesses and stakeholders from the US. The dialogue was to gather support to maximize more employment bringing small and medium businesses and stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic together with government officials to identify ways to deepen U.S.-UK trade and investment ties and strengthen cooperation on issues of mutual interest to SMEs.  “More than 40,000 U.S. companies already sell their goods and services in the UK, and the UK is the second global destination for U.S. e-commerce exports.   Trade between the two countries is about $230 billion per year, and together there is around $1 trillion invested in each other’s economies”, the representative for small business Virginia SBA highlighted.